5 People to Watch in 2018

We spotted a really interesting article in The Irish Times Magazine last weekend on 50 people to watch in 2018. The Irish Times compiled a thorough list of hot talent across the various industries which they advise readers to keep an eye on during the year ahead. We decided to pick 5 options which really stood out to us from their list, Take a look!

We’ve all heard of virtual reality, but for many of us it is a relatively unexplored area. However, for former Facebook employee Nikki Lannen, it is where all the action’s at. Nikki spent over four years at the popular social media platform, working on the company’s gaming team, before going solo and setting up War Ducks, a business which designs and develops games for virtual reality devices. 2017 was a huge year for the Dublin firm, with the announcement in September that it had raised €1.3m to expand and increase its workforce. So, what does 2018 have in store for this exciting brand? Well, more expansion for its popular Sneaky Bear series in Japan and China first and foremost, plus plans in the pipeline for a new series of games. An exciting year ahead for War Ducks and Nikki, that’s for sure!

We’re big Sprout fans here at the Revolve office, we can’t get enough of the healthy fast food company! On the go since 2013, Sprout was set up by Jack, mentioned above, and brother Theo, whose goal was to use high-quality local produce to create mouthwatering salads, soups, and juices which are to die for! Jack is actually an alumni of the prestigious Ballymaloe Cookery School. Sprout & Co has grown from a juice bar in Rathcoole’s Avoca, to having branches in six locations around the capital, and 2018 is set to be the year for them to look at expanding on both a national and international scale. You go boys!

For those of you who haven’t heard of SwiftComply, it’s a tech start-up which only began last year, but has already gone from strength to strength. It is essentially a platform to help restaurants and food outlets follow the rules and regulations imposed by suppliers, resulting in the reuse of fat, oil and grease. Founded by Lindsey and Michael, mentioned above, a huge achievement for the company was the securing of a place on the Techstars accelerator programme in London. It also secured €765,514 in funding last year alone from various backers. We can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for this exciting initiative!

Joanna left a career in tech in the US to undertake a three-month course at Ballymaloe Cookery School back in 2014, and what a decision that turned out to be! She began to embark on a career in the catering industry. However, it was only in 2017 that Joanna decided to combine her skills as a life coach with those she had acquired as a trained chef. Behold, The Calm Kitchen cookery workshops, which began in November 2017. The purpose of these is to encourage people to try cooking as a form of relaxation. The next session is actually set to take place in The Fumbally Stables this Saturday and will continue on throughout the year. Cooking and relaxation – that’s a combo we like!

We love fashion here at Revolve, and are always keeping an eye out for up and coming talent within this industry. Architecture graduate Ciana March started the Concrete Collar blog along with fellow graduate Becky Wallace during a gap year in Sydney, with the blog combining her two passions – fashion and architecture. Since then, this fashionista has been working away as a creative director, stylist, writer and project manager of independent Irish brands in the fields of design, craft and of course, fashion. She was recently described as a”cool, Celtic girl” by none other than Vogue. She is set to relaunch the Concrete Collar website in 2018 and we can’t wait!

We’ll be keeping an eye on this lot in 2018 that’s for sure! We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Ireland’s top talent…